Dolphins!

Whenever I go to the ocean, I get excited when I see dolphins. You can occasionally see them swimming by as the look for food or the others in their group. A group of dolphins is called a pod. Once when Memaw and I were on a whale watching boat, we had some dolphins swimming right in front of the boat. They seem to swim effortlessly as they played in the wave called a “bow wave” that is pushed out in front of the boat. At a park called Marine World, I even got to feed one of the dolphins a tasty fish. He even said “thanks”, well I think that’s what he said. It was that or “Wow, you look handsome in that shirt”. It was hard to be sure.

There are over 30 kinds of dolphins in the world’s oceans. There are also some that live in fresh water rivers. Dolphins are actually considered small tooth whales. They are not fish. Fish breath underwater using gills. Dolphins breath air like us instead of having gills. Dolphins are also aquatic (it means living in the water) mammals. They feed their babies milk and even have eyelashes! Dolphins can live for 40-50 years. They love to eat small fish which they find with the help of echolocation. They make a series of clicks and whistles which help them locate the fish. They can even find fish buried in the sand and mud!

Dolphins are very intelligent. They even have a kind of language.  All those clicks and whistles really mean something. Unfortunately, Papaw doesn’t speak dolphin, so I can’t tell you what they talk about.

One of my favorite dolphins lives in the Amazon River of Brazil, South America. It’s called the pink

dolphin because its skin looks, well, pink. It’s a bit bigger than the ocean dolphins. Ocean dolphins are usually 5-6 feet long. The pink dolphin can be 7-8 feet long.  They eat many different kinds of fish. The males are the pinkest. They also have a big forehead that scientists call the “melon”. It helps them echolocate and hunt easier in the muddier water. They can swim in groups, but often are found in pairs. They can be really playful. They have been known to rub against fishermen’s boats and even grab their oars. They love to play with things in the water like sticks, or even turtles. It looks fun, but I’m not sure if the turtle likes it.  

Here’s a fun video about dolphins. I hope you like it!

 

Love Papaw.

 

Antlions!

 

This time of year here in the Central Valley is usually dry and dusty. If you look around building foundations, fence posts, or anywhere the dust tends to pile up, you may see a strange thing. You will find upside-down cones in the dirt. You probably have them around where you live too if you look closely. They look like this.

The cone is actually a trap made by the larva of an antlion. They are often called “doodlebugs” because of the way they spin and wiggle. The walls of the pit are very steep and lined with loose sand and dust particles. When an unsuspecting ant falls in one, it finds it very hard to crawl out. The doodlebug throws sand at the ant to knock it further down towards the bottom. If the ant falls to the bottom of the pit, the larva grabs it with its sharp mandibles (jaws) and pulls it underground. Its mandibles are hollow like a straw so it sucks all the juices out of the ant and throws the dry part out of the pit. Them to waits patiently for another ant or small insect to wander by. They eat, and eat, and eat! Here’s a video of a doodlebug in action.

When it gets large enough, it will for a pupa and rest for a few days. Soon it will emerge as an adult ant lion. The adults look a lot like damselflies. You don’t usually see them flying around during the day. They are pretty shy. The y don’t eat ants like the doodlebugs but instead prefer to sip nectar from flowers. They only live a few weeks in their adult form.

If you look around carefully, you might find some. They are fun to watch and really can’t hurt us. We’re just way to big to get trapped like an ant!

Well that’s all for this week.

Love, Papaw.

Dragons in the Sky

 

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects in nature. They can fly in any direction, up down, sideways, backwards, you name it. They have incredible eyes. They can see all around them, even backwards. This is good, because they have to see everything while they are flying. They hunt for insects like mosquitoes and flies while all the while watching for predators like birds ore even bigger dragonflies.

Dragonflies have 4 wings witch can be clear or have colored markings. They are divided into little cell areas that scientists use to help identify all the different kinds. Each species of dragonfly is unique. They are cold blooded so they need to warm up in the sun every morning before they can get started. You can often find them sunning on a fencepost or wire so that they can dry off from the morning dew and warm their flight muscles. Once they are airborne they will fly over grassy fields and meadows looking for unsuspecting insects. One single dragonfly can catch and devour over 100 insects in a single day. The have a cool way of catching them. They make a “basket” with their legs and scoop them up right out of the air!

Dragonflies start their lives in the water. The female lays eggs on plants just under the surface of the water. When they hatch, the larva (called a nymph) starts searching for small water dwellers to eat. They have a jaw that shoots out like some kind of alien! They eat and eat until they are full grown. Then they crawl out of the water on the stem of a plant. Their skin splits down the back and the adult dragonfly pulls itself out. When its wings are expanded and fully dried, they take their place in the skies as fierce hunters like their parents.

A cousin of the dragonfly is the damselfly. You can tell them apart because the dragonfly rests with its wings laid flat. A damselfly rests with its wing folded back. They are also much thinner. You can tell the difference in the larva also. They have feathery gills that they wave around in the water.

Dragonflies can’t really hurt you. If you see one, watch it carefully.  They are really amazing.

Here is a neat video about dragonflies.

 

Hope you liked our dragonfly talk!

Love Papaw.

Earthworms!

 

When I was growing up, nighttime excursions in the back yard after a good rain were a fun time. My dad and I loved to fish for largemouth bass, and nothing gets the attention of a hungry fish like a nice, fat night crawler. We would go out with a pail and a flashlight. We noticed that night crawlers were very sensitive to light. Although they do not have eyes like we have, they can “sense” light and dark, especially on their ends. If you turned the light right on them, they would pull back into the ground before you could get close. They are also sensitive to vibrations so we would have to walk very slowly and quietly. When you grabbed one, they would feel slimy. The slime is called mucus. They use it to protect their skin. Since they breathe through their skin, if it dries out, they will die. They also have short, bristly hairs (kind of like you daddy’s whiskers if he forgets to shave) that help them pull into their burrows and keep them from being pulled out easily.

The head end is darker brown that the rest of the worm. That’s where you can find its hearts. He has 5 of them! Worms like to eat organic matter (things like dead leaves on the ground) that they find in the dirt. They spit the dirt back out at the surface. They look like little piles of round, wet, dirtballs. Many people like to put these in their garden because they contain nutrients for plants. Earthworms help aerate the soil and help turn leaves and other debris into usable nutrients for plants. We call animals that do that decomposers. In the fall they leave little pouches with eggs in the soil. Soon they hatch out and begin to burrow in the ground in their own tunnels’

There are many different earthworms around the world. Some are very small like red worms. One variety from South Africa can be 21 feet long! Australia also has huge earth worms that can grow to 9 feet. Some here in the Central Valley can flop around like little break dancers. We call these “snake worms”.

Here’s a video about giant earth worm. Wow they’re huge!

Well I hope you liked our talk about earthworms!

Love Papaw.